Deck Building in Kensington, MD

What a deck in Kensington actually involves

The town core is Victorian-era frame houses with deep wraparound porches, turned posts and steep roofs, ringed by 1940s and 1950s capes and colonials in Rock Creek Hills and Parkwood.

• Layout, zoning and review. Confirm setbacks and lot coverage against the plat, establish whether the deck triggers coverage limits, and where a community association or historic district applies, prepare and submit for approval before permitting.
• The ledger connection. Where the deck attaches to the house, the siding comes off, the band joist is inspected for rot, the ledger is through-bolted or lagged to the specified pattern, and flashing is installed so water cannot get behind it. Nailing a ledger to siding is the classic failure and it is still done constantly.
• Stairs, lighting and detail. Stair framing and landings, low-voltage or line-voltage lighting where wanted, and the trim and fascia detail that separates a deck that looks built from one that looks assembled.
• Drainage and what is underneath. Grading under the deck, and where you want dry space below an elevated deck, an under-deck drainage system detailed to actually shed water rather than pool it.

What drives the cost on a Kensington deck

We will not put a price range on a web page, because a number quoted without seeing your house is either a guess or bait. What we can do is tell you honestly which variables move the number, so you can read the bids you get from anyone.

• Height above grade. An elevated deck means longer posts, larger footings, lateral bracing and a stair run, and it may require guards where a ground-level deck does not.
• Grade and access. A steep or wooded site means hand-digging footings and carrying material, which is labor.
• Roof or cover. A covered porch or roofed deck is a structural addition with its own footing, framing and flashing requirements, not a deck with a lid.

The mistakes we get called in to fix

• Attaching the ledger through siding without removing it, inspecting the band joist and flashing the connection. This is the number one cause of catastrophic deck failure.
• Footings that do not reach below the frost line, which means the deck heaves and settles seasonally until the connections fail.
• Standard galvanized or unrated fasteners in contact with modern pressure-treated lumber, which corrodes them.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

Decks are the most commonly under-built structure attached to a house, and the failure mode is not gradual. A deck comes off the house at the ledger, usually all at once, usually when it is full of people. That is why jurisdictions inspect them and why the ledger connection is the detail we care about most.

We would rather over-disclose than be asked. Maryland: MHIC #111971, issued by the Home Improvement Commission and searchable in the state licensing database. General liability and workers' compensation in force, with certificates sent by our carrier on request and before signing, not after. The licensed trades on your project hold their own licenses and their own policies and pull their own trade permits, which is the legal requirement rather than a preference. Your contract is with us, and so is the responsibility.

Where we work in Kensington

• 20895
• Old Town Kensington
• Rock Creek Hills
• Ken-Gar
• Kensington View
• Parkwood
• Chevy Chase View

How a Kensington project runs

1. We walk the property and put the scope in writing. An unhurried visit, real measurements, and a look behind finishes wherever we responsibly can. You end up with a document describing the project rather than a number scribbled on a business card.
2. Feasibility against Kensington rules, before design. We establish what the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services, with town review will require for deck at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow. Where historic review applies, that submission is prepared and filed first, because the building permit is not useful until it clears.
3. Scope agreed first, permits second. Nothing gets submitted until you have approved a line-item scope with the allowances written out in plain terms and a change-order process both sides have signed off on. Then we assemble and file the permit package and answer the reviewer's comments ourselves.
4. One team on site, one closeout file. MHIC #111971, We supervise our own trades, we schedule against the inspection calendar so nobody sits idle, and we hand you a closeout file at the end that you can give to a buyer years from now.

Deck Building across Kensington and Montgomery County

We work throughout Old Town Kensington, Rock Creek Hills, Ken-Gar, Kensington View, Parkwood and Chevy Chase View, covering 20895. Kensington's Victorian core is the reason people pay to live there, and work that damages the exterior character damages the value. That constraint is real and it should shape the design from day one. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is period detail kept intact on the outside and thoroughly modernized behind it, with kitchens and baths that do not fight the architecture — worth knowing whether you are renovating to stay or renovating to sell.

Homeowners here usually reach us for more than one thing at a time. Related work in Kensington: home additions in Kensington, exterior painting in Kensington, window replacement in Kensington, whole-home renovation in Kensington.

We came to general contracting from the outside of the house in, which is the part most remodelers subcontract and hope for the best on. That means the same company handling your interior can also handle roof replacement, siding, aluminum siding, gutters, soffit and fascia and window replacement — under one contract, with one warranty conversation instead of three companies pointing at each other about where the water came from.

Kensington deck building questions